001Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Edmonton High School Board meeting for Wednesday, October 8th. Would everyone please rise and pledge the >> flagges? Okay. May we please have roll call? >> Certainly. Mr. Abdullah >> here. >> Mr. Azar >> here. >> Mrs. Henderson >> here. >> Mrs. Hillibbran. >> Mrs. Kum >> here. >> Mr. Moran >> here. >> Mr. Robson >> here. >> Mrs. Tierney >> here. >> Mr. Aer >> here. >> Seven present. >> Thank you. May I please have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move second. on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah, >> yes. >> Mr. Azar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hillbrand. Mrs. Karum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >>
002Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> Eight nothing because there's actually eight of you here. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Dr. This is the point >> in the this is the point in the meeting when you and I always talk about whether it's better to have public comment before the superintendent's uh report or or not. What's your choice? >> Probably permanently chang >> I like talking about so why don't we do public comment first. >> All right. Uh is there anyone who would like to address the board? >> Public comment. We ask you to come forward, state your name, your address, and hopefully keep your comments to three minutes or less, unless you're Mr. Unless you're Mr. Mirabelli, in which case we'll give you all the time you want. Okay, Mr. Staller, appreciate the time. Good evening.
003I would uh I'd like to get your comments tonight on articles about districts, some very close to ours in size and proximity that are struggling financially uh due to the state budget impass. We're at 100 days. Some of those districts are freezing spending. They're using savings and building funds, even additional borrowing. >> Um, where are we, >> Mr. Stler? Um, I'm not going to interrupt because I know Dr. Mr. Schaefer is going to say something, but uh we're not going to make comments about other districts. We're happy to talk about where we >> I'm not asking for other districts. >> What are we doing? >> I just use them as a >> as a backdrop. >> I just want to make sure you know >> I understand >> that we're not going to do that.
004>> That's fine. Do you have any other questions? >> That's my main focus tonight. >> Are we struggling? Are we uh >> I don't know. Maybe you did. >> No, I uh what I can say is that I feel that the board has done fantastic job managing our budget. I can only speak for the last four years to invest our funds that we're able to invest in you know mostly Treasury bills and other high bills funds like a state where we've done well with our We are also at an advantage as compared to some of our peers in this geographic area because of property values and such. So for instance, we continue to have a lot of transfer tax increasing. So we have a lot of tailwinds that other districts do not have. When you
005take a look at that, we are in a good position. I have told the board uh before that I would not recommend loan because you want to call loan shortterm loans payroll. for several districts that are in that position where they have to pay higher interest rates form. Um we have not had to do that. One strategy that we have enacted is that we have some bills and that's fine through some of our shortterm strategy as we believe this will come to an end very shortly. But we are not in any position where we would have to make of the decisions or tradeoffs that you spoke about. So for Philadelphia and I also tell you Philadelphia As a result, a lot of our hiring happens for that way. Everybody else, but we're not as good.
006Okay. Just uh on your um on your budget 24 25 years finished and you're you're into the 25 26 year. Will there be upcoming updates as far as budget analysis that you'll put out on the >> Sure. So what you'll what you'll observe and November we'll have our auditors coming in AFR which is our annual financial report on that day Also hopefully we'll have a state budget and when I spoke about state approximately 70% of our budget is from local sources anywhere from 26 to 29% sources. >> Okay, I'll leave it at that. Thanks for the time. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, >> Dr. Schaefer. >> I'm sorry, we have one more. I apologize. >> Hi. Um, I'm Amy Burge. I am a parent of a first grader and a three-year-old in
007the district with a dream of whole day kindergarten. Uh, I've only heard parents talking about that maybe by showing some presency that it might be considered more. So, here I am as a friendly face to say it's still something on our minds often as we approach school age children needing for full day kindergarten. So, that's that's where I am just to say hi. Maybe there'll be more strength in numbers as I can bring my friends to a to the same event, but that's all. >> That's where I am. >> Thanks. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Amy, at our at our at our last meeting, we had a few folks uh talk about this and and I'll give you the same response as I did them and and that is um
008>> Yeah. Well, we Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Right. And >> should and I'm continuing to explore that. And what I mean by explore, just so you you know what I mean by that, is uh I I have been and will continue to gather as much information as I can relative to the cost of it. And it's not just the the the cost of the teachers and the curriculum and things like that. It's taking a look at the the number of students that we have in. So we take a look at live birth rates. had also taken a look at our current facilities and determining if we need to uh make additions uh to those facilities uh to do that. Um these are the types of things we do. Um, yeah. And and so I just
009want you to know that it's a great it's a great question. >> And that's why I was like I know it's a dream. >> No, >> two years would be a bad like miracle beyond miracles, but it's still something that like >> I couldn't not show face as parents are like maybe you should show up and talk about it. So here I am to show up and talk about it. >> Make it makes you feel any better. My dream is to not have to answer. >> Of course. Of course. And I and I only see one way >> and and I and I understand all of the the housing and the pores. I understand. >> Yes. So we Yeah, we are we are um >> Yeah. >> But if it's always in the forefront, then
010we're here. We are we're trying to >> we're trying to that's all we could do. >> So thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Okay, Dr. Schaefer. >> All right. I have a just a a couple brief uh comments here. I was going to make a uh comment about uh the the state budget impass and and where we're at, but I've I seemingly have uh answered that that question. We'll uh continue to hold out hope that uh the legislators in Harrisburg will come through. Uh what I would tell the the the public is that uh behind the scenes uh we work with our local legislators. Uh we have continued conversations with them about what our needs are, about what our concerns are. oftentimes we we uh answer questions from legislators about hey what
011if we considered this or what if we considered that what would the impact be on our constituents. So there is uh a lot of dialogue and and certainly what I would imagine um a lot of tradeoffs uh happening uh at the state level and again hopefully soon we'll have a a a budget in place and then we'll be able to uh make more informed decisions throughout this year uh and into and into the following year. So, uh, I I do want to mention I I I mentioned it before in the last meeting, but I I want to say thank you to all our members of our, uh, community, our our our teachers, our staff, our our our students for um, a great year. Um, so far it's been uh, fantastic. You know, it's um, it's
012frustrating uh, driving in Pennsylvania, right? uh because it seems like the construction always happens as we're coming back to school and with all the rain in the spring, we got more of it. So, hats off because my concern is always um student safety, particularly when we get into the beginning of September. You know, there are 3,400 students that were not in school for three months coming back. There's another 300 staff members. There are 50 buses and and vans. Everybody's on the road uh over these 69 square miles of Abington Heights. And um I just want to thank everybody for their patience. We had a lot of work happening at the high school. Our school community was patient um while we were going through that. We've made changes to the entrance uh at the middle school,
013specifically where we're we're dropping off. We've we moved the front of the school to the back of the school. All of our parents have been very patient with that and I I I really appreciate that. Our neighbors around um the middle school, you know, I thank them for their their their patience. I I know that it's difficult to look at at times and you're going to have runoff at times like when we had that storm last week and and we will uh do our very best uh to be uh good neighbors and attentive to the needs of uh the people surrounding and living uh around the middle school. So I want to uh thank them. So far we we are on track. Uh like many large construction projects, we we face challenges on the daily.
014Um nothing that has been insurmountable, but I just want to manage expectations around that. And I'm not delivering some secret message here. I'm just saying there will be times when you're dealing with a $50 million project that's in total over 70,000 square feet that things are going to uh pop up and uh we've got a we've got a good team in place and so I'm I'm I'm very happy with that. Um, and finally, I I I just want to uh make a comment about something I observed at the uh last Friday. And and the last two football games uh that we've had at the the the high school field have been very well attended. It's just uh it's it's incredible. By my count, it was well over 2500. Uh there we we added the the
015stands. Um, you know, while I'm just talking about the marching band and the band front and our football team and our cheerleading team and all the students that support that and all of our booster parents that support that and all of our parents and community members that come out um to watch. I I you know, I I I want to say um thank you. And I also want to mention something that I don't I don't know why it didn't strike me before. I've talked about this but a little differently, but it just hit home after the football game. Very rarely do I get to see one of those things that as a kid you dream of like like when you're running around like ah it's fourth and 12 or down by six. I gotta score
016a touchdown here. Um it was a very very exciting game. right down uh to the end. And and I was talking to a friend of mine and he's like, you know, listening to me. He's like, well, you know, explain this again. It's so magical. And I and I said, I I see this on the daily from our kids. And I have a hard time sometimes explaining it, but you know, we talk about leadership, we talk about perseverance, we talk about adversity and having the the confidence and the skills to to kind of drive through seemingly the most um difficult position. And I said, I can talk about that and plenty of people talk about it, but you need to provide the students with reps under stress. Now, not everybody will agree with me on that
017and that's that's that's okay. Okay. But you can't always manufacture that in a practice. You can't always manufacture that context in the classroom. So, when you get to observe the kids in any sport uh going through that, it just it it it makes you happy, right? You're just like, "Wow, I I I know that it was exciting for all of our kids that weren't on the field being there because there's something to be taken away as a student and a person from that, but to be on the field and and to and and to uh experience that and see that um it it was fantastic. And and and uh I just wanted to say that uh publicly because all too often we talk about leadership. We talk about adversity. We talk about grit and all
018those um really nice things, but we don't really talk about what it takes to actually demonstrate that and put the kids into a position and prepare them for that. And now they have that experience and kids have seen it and that will make them in my opinion uh better people as they they move forward. So um that's That's all I had to say. >> Very nice. Thank you. >> Okay. I guess we should move into the action disc discussion items. >> Sure. >> All right. At this time, I'd ask the board to consider a request to approve the personnel report as follows. >> So move. >> Second. >> On a motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum. >> Yes.
019>> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Acker? >> Yes. >> 8 nothing. >> Mr. I could ask the board consider a motion to approve the transportation contract between Abington Heights School District and Danielle Raptis, a private contractor to begin on September 2nd, 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mazar. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> Eight nothing. >> Uh before I mention this one, every year we put a motion up to uh allow the superintendent to hire employees in between board meetings. I just want
020to stress that this this is really an August, September type of thing and then sometimes November, December. So whenever we hire somebody, they then have to officially resign. It is accepted by their board and then a clock starts because the the district that they would be leaving, they're able to hold them for 60 days. So, we put in a resolution like that that allows me typically in hires that we get in July and August and sometimes over that holiday uh when we we may not have a board meeting for several weeks to provide them with a letter saying that they're hired. They then they can resign and we start the clock. and and that's a a really important clock because that we want to get uh a teacher uh that's that's going to be permanent
021in in front of the kids. So with that said, I'd ask the board to consider a motion to approve the superintendent to hire employees in between board meetings for the 2526 school year. >> So moved. >> Second. On the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdala, >> yes. >> Mr. Azar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, yes. >> Mrs. Kum, yes. Mr. Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 Z. >> Mr. I could ask board uh consider a motion to approve the agreement between the NEIU19 and Abington Heights School District for partial hospitalization therapeutic services for the 2526 school year. >> So moved. >> Second. >> On a motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar.
022>> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson. >> Yes. Yes. Mrs. Kum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8. Nothing. >> Mr. Ask the board consider a motion to approve the school resource officer memorandum of understanding. This is also done yearly between Abington Heights School District and South Abington Township. >> So move. >> Second. On a motion. >> I I do have a question. Um, is this still under the safety grant to pay for the resource officers in the middle school and the high school? >> The grant was for 75,000 and I believe the way that um or when it came to us. We're just now nearing the end of it. So, we had the uh last year paid for by
023the grant and some of it may uh come into this year because I I don't think it was a quick hire. There's a little bit of a time there. >> So, we don't qualify annually for that. >> No, it's a it's a competitive grant and there's only a few um available, but when it comes out again, I will apply again. But there's there they're there's so few of them. >> Well, thanks for applying. >> No. Yeah. Yeah. >> Any other questions? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah? >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Henderson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Karum? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moran? >> Yes. >> Mr. Vson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tierney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker? >> Yes. >> 8 nothing. Sir, I could ask the board consider a motion
024to approve the leader services quote to implement IEP writer in the CIS bridge that includes training star and linkage integration. >> So moved. >> Second on the motion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah, >> yes. >> Mr. Azar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Carum, >> yes. >> Mr. Moran, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. Mrs. Tierney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aker. >> Yes. >> 8 nothing. >> If you didn't know the High School Musical was Oklahoma this year, you will know now. Um, Mr. Aer ask the board consider a motion to approve the estimated budget proposal for the High School Musical production staff roles and responsibilities for the 2026 High School Musical Oklahoma. >> So moved. >> Second on the motion. >> Yeah, I have a motion. They did
025Oklahoma back in 1974. >> The last time I was in it. >> You were in it. That's great. >> Do Do you have some pictures or anything? Like we could put that up. We could put that up. >> We need We need proof. M >> Mrs. Tuny, we need proof. Sorry. >> Pictures will work fine. Photos. >> I did. >> That's great. >> Yeeha. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abdullah. >> Yes. >> Mr. Azar. >> Yes. Mrs. Henderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Carum, >> yes. >> Mr. Moran, >> yes. >> Mr. Robson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tierney, >> yes. >> And Mr. Aker, >> yes. >> Ate nothing. >> Now, Mrs. Tuni, was the budget the same? >> Might. >> Okay. Uh, the next part of our meeting isformational. We have a list of
026uh use of facilities and once again the use of facilities stretches on to 14 pages. Um, can I make a comment on that? >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Um, quite often when uh the day or two before the football game is played at the pit, I'm asked if this is the last game ever played at the pit. And I just want to use this opportunity to share with the public. If you look at this last month, the pit was used over 10 times. The football program has a junior high team with inclusive of ninth grade and it also has a a JV junior varsity team and they both utilize the pit every week unless there's rain and we haven't had rain. So the pit is used and the pit is used weekly and speaking with
027coaches it is vitally important that they have that extra field. So thank you. >> Very good. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Is there any unfinished business for the board, >> Mrs.? >> Yes. Um, I wouldn't be remiss if I didn't share this story as a coach entering the high school the other night at 7:00 and seeing the beautiful lights of the both fields being used and the incredible atmosphere that that brought. But along with that brought two bus loads of Abington Heights cross country runners with their van. At the same time, both fields were used full-time and there was zero parking in the high school and all of these students had to be exited in front of the school and walk back to the fieldhouse where the line for parent pickup at the same
028time the football program was getting out of practice was all the way down to Gravel Pond Road and almost at the bottom of Noble Road. There were students running all over the place. Safety was a huge violation and I was I was really concerned that a student or a parent was going to run into another car because it was an absolute nightmare. And I have been a volunteer substitute coach. So, this was my first time traveling home on the bus this year. So, this was my first experience seeing this. And I hope that this is a temporary problem because we cannot have students and parents parked all the way down Gravel Pond Road picking up their kids at 7 o'clock. And the lighting outside the fieldhouse was not very bright. Something was wrong. So when
029I asked tonight if you were pleased with the project, I hope that there is an opportunity for bus pickup and drop off for traveling students is we we figure out a system because that cannot happen again. Thank you. >> What day was that? >> This past week it was we were at Wyoming Valley Monday night. Monday night >> This Monday. this Monday. >> Okay. Thanks. Thank you very much, Mrs. Henderson. >> Okay. Is there any new business to the board? You're good. No, sir. I'd ask for a motion to adjurnn in that case. Some of